Hey folks! So last year's Burning Seed was a wash-out (quite literally!) but there were still significant costs attached to the event - you can take a gander here at how our finances ended up.

Here's a bit of commentary to help you navigate where the money went:

ADMIN: We have a whole army of people dedicating their time and experience to run Seed on a completely voluntary basis, and we cover out of pocket expenses for doing so, such as stationary, fuel, phone, etc. There are also bank fees and other office expenses. Last year we ended up spending additional accounting fees than we expected as a result of dealing with the cancellation. We've also included a line on ticketing fees from last year - this wouldn't normally show up as an individual line on the financials because it would usually be included as a net cost of achieving revenue - but of course we didn't make any revenue last year...

SAFETY AND REGULATORY SERVICES: We want to give everyone a safe and wonderful experience, so we engage a team of professional medics and security guards to look out for you. We also have to comply with all the regulatory requirements so this also comprises all of the company fees and accounting costs. There were insurance and other non-refundable costs incurred last year.

DPI HEAVY EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS: Heavy equipment and materials are forklifts, generators, moving equipment, etc—all coordinated by DPI and used for the various infrastructure needs of Seed, the biggest of which is the provision of central services, such as Centre Camp, Effigy and the Temple, as well as all of the other Art and occasionally desperate Theme Camps!

PERMITS, FEES AND OTHER VENUE COSTS (EXCL. TOILETS): As we are on NSW Foresty land, we have to pay a fee per participant for every beautiful participant on the site. There are also significant other venue costs to run a safe and smooth event.

TOILETS: The true cost of transporting toilets to site, rental, pumping them out and getting them back off site is generally over $60k (not last year of course, only a few were required for crew on site), but we feel that its worth every penny spent to make sure you can spend a penny in a pleasant environment…. And we are sure you do too!

VEHICLE HIRE AND FUEL: We are pretty far away from every where so we need to utilise vehicles to transport materials to and from site. We have also saved costs here from the wonderful people who let us use their vehicles for free.

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT: We (generally) build a beautiful city from scratch and we need power tools to do that, so this represents all of the capital equipment that we use and reuse in future years.

TRAVEL AND SUMMIT CONFERENCE: The Annual Seed Summit brings together all the organising teams to assess the event and talk about how to make it even more amazing next year - even though we didn't run an event last year there were still lessons to learn and plans to make for 2017. This represents the cost of venue hire for the meeting and budget travel and accommodation for those travelling from far afield.

ART AND THEME CAMP GRANTS: We award grants to artists and theme camps to bring their amazing, weird and wonderful offerings to Seed, as well as the stunning fire art work that you see every year (apart from last year) at Seed. Artists and Theme Camps received all the grant money that they submitted receipts for, as they were out of pocket for money we had promised them. In the case of artists in particular, we had contracts with them promising that they would receive that money. So even though the event was cancelled, a lot of the stuff that would have gone into having an event was actually done already and needed paying for. We hope to see the art that was planned for Deep Space last year at DEEPER SPACE this year!!!

DONATIONS: Your ice money matters! We donate each year to three local fire services to thank them for keeping us all safe at the Burn and we support the Red Earth Ecology replanting project.

CIVIC SERVICES: This is the cost of building Centre Camp, the Effigy and the Temple and will encompass the new Sanctuary in 2017, as well as the PEER ranger team, for your safety and wellbeing. In 2016 the costs came from the build of the Effigy on site and other non-refundable costs from hire etc. Last year our first crew arrived on site 4 September and started building. Forestry gave us the cancellation notice mid September, and our build crew and effigy crew were optimistically building all the way up to that point. The temple had been mostly prefabricated off site, so while it never made it to Matong, it was essentially already built before we received the cancellation notice. After the notice was received from Forestry, the build crew had to then pack away everything (a monumental task given weather conditions), and remained on site until 27 Sept.

IT COSTS: Unfortunately as much as we try to disconnect and connect personally, we still need to use things like email, internet and online conferencing to communicate all year round to collaborate and create the best event possible.

CREW COSTS AND TRAINING: For over five weeks before the event a dedicated team are onsite full time, living and breathing the creation of our city on the Paddock (they were there until late September last year despite no event). The kitchen does an amazing job feeding each person for less than $16 a day and we provide some basic appreciation. Essential training is also provided for the operation of heavy equipment (mainly WHS training, first aid, whitecard, etc).

PUBLICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS: Where would you be without the What Where When guide, survival guide, Burning Seed blog and website? This is the printing and publication costs of bringing all that lovely knowledge and information to you. The What Where When guides for Deep Space were printed in September and ready for your pocket - these will now be collectors items for the Burn that never was!!